Crown Moulding Price

Dionisios

Hi everyone, My name is Dionisios ,i am 33 years old and i have been in construction for about 10 years now and have been doing finishing carpentry for a few years now.
i just did a suite, 180 lineal feet of crown 16 corners $1.50 per foot for the crown
and charged 20$ per hour.
took me 12 hours as the walls,the ceiling and the vallances were very poor
but it still turned out great.I made $240 did i not charge enough??
my friends think not.any feed back would be great

Bob Kovacs

Well, since you didn't say where you're from, we can't really say. If you live in India, you probably made a year's wages, so you did OK. If you in most parts of the US, you made the equivalent of what you could have made working at Home Depot, while taking on more risk, so I'd say your friends are right.

Greg Di

Priceless as usual...

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Bob Kovacs

Well, you've got to remember, it is called the "World Wide Web", so one can't confine one's self to only our fair nation.........lol.

Did you ever get any calls on those projects I emailed you about?

Cole

I would have to agree with your friends.

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Dionisios

Thanx for the feed back.
I live in vancouver Canada and have worked for the same contractor for about 4 years now.
my wage has stayed at 20$ since i began working for him.
I will be going on my own some time in 2008 any idea what i should be charging for crown moulding, casings, baseboards, not staingrade but just primed wood or mdf

Dionisios

I just discovered the Diy room on this web site am I in the wrong area to ask these sort of questions?

I am new to this site.

I have done alot of different trades and the 1 i find I like the most is finishing carpentry and have been doing it for a number of years now
framing, finishing, doors, windows, tiles, toilets, siding, forming and others
I dont want to be a jack of all trades master of none but latly iv been taking what is available no questions asked

The final piece to the puzzle that i am missing is quoting a job properly.
working for 20$ for years now i am barely scraping by.
I used to think that was a decent wage but now I find my self struggling to pay my bills.
should I be more aggressive about what i am getting payed(I know I am worth more)or should i start looking elsewhere until I get my own gig going

Tmrrptr

You are mostly likely not going to get more from the contractor you work for.
Doesn't mean you can ask for a bit more...

If you are unsure of pricing, or unable to exhibit the highest confidence in your own ability to bid a job at a rate that will allow you to prosper, I would suggest you are not ready to go out on your own and compete with that contractor you work for today.

This is not the best time for a startup in the construction biz, unless you have plenty of clients seeking your services.
r

send_it_all

At those prices, clients are probably lined up around the block.

ponch37300

When i started out i thought i knew how much to charge and thought i was making a profit till i realized how much everything costs in the end. Bidding is tricky when you are starting out but you learn quick. I never lost money but made very little on a couple of jobs. The best advice which you will hear from most guys on here is to figure out all your expenses(insurance, gas, tools, and any other costs not covered under materials) and how much profit you need to make and come up with a hourly rate that you need to make. Then figure how long the job is going to take and times the hours by the rate and make sure to add a cushion for un expected expenses or when things end up taking longer than expected. Good luck

Bummie

I charge 4.50 per lineal foot for labor for crown mouldings ... in Alberta. So for this job I would have charged 180 x $4.50 = $810.00 I would say you undercharged by quite a bit!!!

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barreled

$4.50 per lineal ft. sounds way more reasonable for standard crown and I am in NC.

barreled

I price my interior trim by the sq ft. of the house.

Mrmac204

Dionisos, I had the same dilema about a year back - difficult to get prices from other contractors! but what I did was figure out approx. how long it takes me to do a crown job - then use that number of hours to estimate for the next job.

example: if you want to make $50/hr, well then multiply that times the hours that you estimate the job will take. So 12 x 50? 600 bucks - this is the formula that I use, and it seems to be in the ballpark.
My first job was baseboard, and I figured 95 cents a foot- wrong! at the end of the day I figured that I made about 8 bucks an hour- but it is experience, and business hard knocks! client is happy, I learned a lot from that.

Rona and Home Depot are charging $5/foot for crown, PLUS FOR EXTRAS! what the heck is an extra???? they don't know, or won't say as they want their estimator to come out.

If you can get that book by Wayne Drake, "crown Molding & Trim" its a gold mine of info. I refer to it constantly - currently used it to figure out how to wrap a 3/4 bullnose corner - first one took me over an hour, but after that- 10-15 minutes - client is very impressed

I also cope all my inside corners- I use those little blue jigs "easy coper" great time savers.

good to see another Vancouverite on the site!!!

Mac in kitsilano

Mrmac204

BTW: I'm working for a large firm doing houses in the British Properties-28/hr + benefits- subs get 32-40 depending on experience.

silvertree

Here in Mpls I charged $1560 for 128 LF of 3 1/2" crown a few months back.
Bought it preprimed and brushed 2 coats of paint on it in my shop.
Took a couple hours to paint and 9 hours to install, that included caulking the crown where it hit the popcorn ceiling, fill nail holes and touch up.
3 hrs truck time, 2 hours paint and 9 hours at the job
Crown was $1.40 lin foot. Preprimed fingerjoint pine.
Crown $179.00
Quart paint $12.00
Labor $1369.00 Minus truck, gas, tool wear ect. or 28% overhead.
That leaves about $985 or about $65 an hour.
I do a lot of trim and this is average for my area.
Thats Minneapolis.

Dionisios

Thank you all so much for the feed back.
This has really helped me alot .
currently I will tough it out with the contractor i am working for untill the apartment is finished sometime next year , then I will once again reassess my situation .Thanks again

works4me

I'm right there with Silvertree - my last crown mold bid was MDF 3 1/2" @ $11.00/l.f. (cost $1.50/l.f.). Me and two helpers knocked out 4 rooms and a hallway in one day. Included caulking and 2 coats paint. All said and done $900.00 profit after all expenses. Owners were a little shocked it was done in one day, but they loved it - good quality finish. Kill them with quality and they usually don't complain about price or time when your done.

RTRCon

Bidding on stuff like that when your just getting started is bid low get the job, get some confidence, and each new job bid with more confidence that you can do it

Greg Di

No, not yet...

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